is what we probably call a cyclical
book. And what I mean by that is it
establishes a pattern of conduct for both the children of Israel
and for the Lord. Habitual conduct. So here's how
the cycle would go. The children of Israel would
turn to idolatry. They would prefer an idol, one of the false gods
of their enemies, to Jehovah, to the Lord. So they would worship
him. And after that, the Lord would sell them into the hands
of their enemies. In this case, a Moabite king, Aglam. And after
a period of time would go by, the Lord would cause the children
of Israel to cry out for a deliverer. The Lord would raise up someone
to defeat their enemies and to liberate them from the oppression.
The Lord would do that every single time. He'd raise up a
judge, one of the people from the children of Israel. He'd
raise him up and the judge would go out and liberate the people
and defeat their enemies for them. And for a time, the children
of Israel would worship the Lord. And then what would happen next?
The cycle began all over again. And here they are in the midst
of another cycle. This has been 18 years. They've been under hard oppression
and labor by Eglin, the king of the Moabites. And it's interesting
how Eglin employs them. When we read further on, we're
going to hear about the quarries. That word is going to come up
a couple times in what we're going to read. The quarries is
where the children of Israel were employed, where they worked.
And here's what they were doing there. They were mining huge
rocks, and they would spend all day collecting these rocks and
making idols out of these rocks for their enemy. So whatever
idols the Moabites were worshiping, the Israelites would go out,
mine the rocks for it, make the idols. And there's a sense of
irony in all this. What got them in this place to
begin with? Idolatry, idol worship. And it's
if the Lord is saying, if this is what you want, if you want
an idol, you want a false God, I'll give you all the idols you
want. You can spend all day mining these rocks. You can spend all
day making these idols. If you want idols, I'll give you idols.
I will give you exactly what you want. And I was stewing on
this last night. There's a very real sense in which the Lord
is going to give every man exactly what he wants. If you want an
idol, If you want a false god, if you want to make up a false
god in your imagination and assign him attributes that you're comfortable
with and you want to worship him, he will leave you alone
and let you do that. If you want to come to him on
the grounds of your own merits before the law and be judged,
he will meet you on those grounds. If you won't win, there'll be
no success in all that. You'll be met with guilty, will
be the verdict, but he will meet you on those grounds. If you
want separation from God, and truly that's what Adam and Eve
wanted, wasn't it? They wanted to be separate. They wanted separation
from God. If you want separation from God,
he will give you separation from God. That's hell. That's exactly
what it is. It's separation from the goodness
of God. Even an unsaved man, In this
life, he enjoys the sunshine on his face, and he enjoys a
cool breeze, and he enjoys a hot meal. The goodness of God shines
upon all men in some way, shape, or form in this world. In hell,
there is no goodness of God. There is the absence of him,
separated. If that's what you want, you'll
get that. In that same vein, if you want to be saved by Jesus
Christ and him alone, you are. If you want to be dressed in
His righteousness alone, not the righteousness of your filthy
rags, your self-righteousness, but if you want to be draped
in His righteousness, you have it. If you want Him to intercede
for you and bring you before the Father, be judged on the
grounds of what He has done exclusively, you have it. The Lord is going
to give every man what he wants. There is a sense in which that
is absolutely the case. Now, look over verse 15. But when the children of Israel
cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer. Ehud,
the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man left-handed, Him the children
of Israel sent a present unto Eglam the king of Moab." Now
here we are introduced to our judge. This is the type of Christ,
this is the hero of the story. This is Ehud. And we get two
pieces of information about Ehud. Number one he is a Benjamite,
tribe of Benjamin. And number two he is left handed.
And the Scripture makes a big deal about this. As we read this
we are going to read a couple of different times when the Scripture
points out he is a left handed man. The Scripture points it
out there is some significance to that. What is it? This is
very interesting. You know what a Benjamite means?
It means son of the right hand. That's exactly what it means.
Who could that be other than the Lord Jesus Christ? In eternity
past, he was seated at the right hand of his father, enjoying
his father's presence. He came to this earth, became
the sinner's substitute, died for his people, accomplishing
their salvation, went back, and where is he seated now? at the
right hand of his father making effective intercession for all
his people. He sits at the right hand of
God, Christ does. He's a Benjamite, son of the
right hand, but he's left handed. What does that mean? What's the
significance of that? So nowadays we see that some
people are just left handed. We don't think there's anything
odd about that. About 10% of the population is left handed.
That's not strange. We actually make products that
are ergonomically designed for people who are left-handed. We
don't see anything odd about it. It wasn't that way back then.
Back then, if you were left-handed, you were looked at as separate.
You are different. You are not like everybody else. Let me read you this. For such
an high priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. The Lord Jesus Christ took on
the human form. He came to this earth and he
embodied the body of a man, but he was unlike any other man. He was separate from sinners.
He took on a human body, human flesh, but he did not take on
human nature. He didn't take on that fallen,
sinful human nature. He had his own nature, the very
nature of God, that holy and that perfect nature. That's him.
He's separate from sinners. Another way they looked at people
left-handed back then was this. It was looked at as a handicap,
something like a limitation or a disability. So it wasn't so
much, hey, why do you use your left hand? It was, what's wrong
with your right hand? Why doesn't it work? You're limited,
you're handicapped. And truly there's a sense in
which the Lord Jesus Christ when he came to this earth he handicapped
himself, he limited himself. Listen to this scripture, this
is Philippians 2, 6 and 7, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon
him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. He took on human limitation.
He who needed nothing and had no needs became needy." He had
to have clothes on his back. He had to drink water. He had
to eat food. He had to have warmth from a
fire. He who had no needs came to this world and limited himself
and took on the form of a man and the needs of a man. Why?
Because only a man could be the savior of men. A man had to keep
God's holy law. A God-man, Jesus Christ did.
A man had to die under the wrath of God for men. Jesus Christ,
altogether God, altogether man, did. But He handicapped Himself.
He came to this world and every time He used His power, His omnipotent
power, He did it for somebody else. Never performed a miracle
for Himself. He's separate from sinners and
yet He took on human flesh and limited Himself for us. Now,
look at verse 16. But Ehud made Him a dagger. which
had two edges, make note of that, we'll need that later, of a cubit
length. And he had girded under his raiment
upon his right thigh, and he brought the present unto Eglin,
king of Moab. And Eglin was a very fat man. And when he had made
an end to offer the present, he sent away the people that
bear the present. But he himself turned again from the quarries
that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand unto thee,
O king, who said, keep silence, And all that stood by him went
out from him. Now, Ehud has a plan and a purpose. He's going to kill Eglam. That
is his plan. That is his purpose. And he has
staged an elaborate ruse. He makes himself a dagger, about
18 inches long. Double-edged, keep that in mind,
and he hides it on his right thigh. And he goes to King Eglin
and he presents a present. We don't know what the present
is, but it's a present. And he's basically saying this, listen,
I'm the ruler of the Jews. We're giving you this present.
We're pledging our fealty to you. You're not going to have
any problems at us, right? We recognize you're in control.
No uprisings. You're not going to have any
issues with us. Here's a present, kind of an offering to you, right?
And I'm sure Egelin is skeptical. He should be, because he's had
these people enslaved for 18 years. There's no reason they
should be giving him a present. And I'm sure he's skeptical,
but Ehud is very smart. He just gives the present, and
he leaves. Right? Doesn't ask for anything. Just
gives the present, and he turns around, and he leaves. And what
does Egelin think? Egelin probably thinks that Ehud
is a turncoat. This guy is going to try to make his own life easier,
so he's willing to oppress the people, keep them in line, keep
them working. In exchange for that, Eglin will make his life
a little bit easier. He thinks he's just standard politician.
This is a guy I can do business with. So now, Eglin's in this
position where he lets his guard down. He starts to trust Ehud. This is all according to Ehud's
plan. And then he comes back in. He says, by the way, King,
forgot something. I've got a secret for you. Secret. And Eaglin says, you have a secret?
I don't want anybody else to hear the secret, right? I want
this information. So Eaglin clears out his entire court, sends all
his guards away, sends all his advisors away. This is exactly
what Ehud had planned. Now it's just Ehud and Eaglin.
Let's see what happens. Verse 20. And Ehud came unto
him, and he was sitting in a summer parlor, which he had for himself
alone. And Ehud said, I have a message
from God unto thee. And he rose out of his seat.
And Ehud put forth his left hand and took the dagger from his
right thigh and thrust it into his belly. And the haft also
went in after the blade. And the fat closed upon the blade
so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly. And
the dirt came out." I want us to visualize what happens here.
Ehud takes that 18-inch dagger and he thrusts it inside Eglon's
gut. And it says very clearly here,
the blade goes in and so does the haft. That means the entire
knife. The blade, the tang, the handle,
that entire knife went inside Eglon and the fat closed around
it. It went in and it disappeared inside of him. You could very
well say that that dagger became a part of Eglon. And then the
dirt came out. I don't want to gross anybody
out, but the word is feces. You've heard of people dying
a traumatic death and then voiding their bowels. That's what happened
here. As soon as the dagger went in and disappeared inside Eglund,
the filth came out. And the last thing Eglund saw
before he died was all the filth that was inside of him. It was
all on full display for him to see. Now, look at verse 23. Then Ehud went forth through
the porch and shut the doors of the parlor upon him, and locked
them. When he was gone out, his servants
came, and when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlor
were locked, they said, Surely he covereth his feet in his summer
chamber." They think he's using the restroom, probably from the
smell. Verse 25, and they tarried till they were ashamed. behold
he opened not the doors of the parlor therefore they took a
key and opened them and behold their Lord was fallen down dead
on the earth and he who had escaped while they tarried and passed
beyond the quarries and escaped unto Sariath." Now what's the
teaching here? What is this trying to tell us
or what does it tell us? It's been my experience with
these Old Testament stories. When you read the story, somewhere
in there, there is a word or a phrase or a sentence that sums
up the overall teaching of that story. And this one is actually
found in verse 20. It's when Ehud leans in and he
whispers to Eglund, I have a message from God for you. story teaches
us two things. Number one it teaches us what
the message is. What is God's message? What is
the message of the Gospel? It teaches us that. It also teaches
us this, what happens when the Lord makes that message effectual
to a sinner? What does that look like? Both
those things are answered. So, let's answer the questions.
What is the message? What is the message of the gospel?
What is God's message? Well, I ask you this, what was
Ehud's message to Eglon? Ehud's message to Eglon was a
dagger, a dagger that he thrust all the way inside Eglon so that
it disappeared inside of him, became a part of him, and after
that, after he died, All the filth came out. That, folks,
is probably the most bizarre illustration of the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ I have ever read. What happened on the
cross? The Father took the sins of the
elect, that dagger. And he thrust them inside Christ,
so much so that they became his. They became a part of him. All of them, all the sins of
all the elect went inside Christ, and he died under the wrath of
God for those sins. And when he died, this is what
happened. The filth, the dirt, the sin, it came out. gone. Through that death He put away
all the sins of everybody He died for and they are removed
as far as the east is from the west. Those people stand this
very day 100% justified because of what Christ did on that cross. The message of the Gospel is
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, it's the only message. And Paul
reaffirmed that. He said in 1 Corinthians 2, 2,
he said, for I determined not to know anything among you, save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now you can never out preach
the cross. You can try, you can do it for years, you will never
out preach the cross. But I will give you four things
we learned from the cross, the message of the cross. Here's
the first thing we learned at the cross, that God is holy and
He is just, and He must and will punish sin. Spurgeon said the
cross is a warning sign to all men. If God would not spare His
only begotten Son, whom He loved when sin was found upon Him,
how much less would He spare you if you die in your sins?
He will not. That's the first thing we learn
at the cross, that God is holy and He is just and He must punish
sin. The second thing we learn from
the cross is this, that the house of Adam deserves unspeakable
punishment. because we're the ones who murdered
him. I don't understand all the ins and outs of federal headship.
I wouldn't proclaim to, and I'm gonna talk about that some more
in this morning's message. But I know this, that evil fallen
nature that I earned in Adam, all of us share that evil, fallen,
wicked nature. And those Roman soldiers that
put the Lord to death, I share their nature. That means, had
I been there, I would have done the exact same thing. That means
I did the exact same thing. It's that nature, that fallen,
sinful, human nature, that God-hating nature that put Jesus Christ,
God's only son, to death for nothing. He was innocent. He
did nothing but tell people the truth. He did nothing but good.
An innocent man was murdered, I recognize, according to the
purpose and the foreknowledge of God. But somebody murdered
him, and that's us. And we deserve punishment. Now
here's the third thing we learned from the cross, that the death
of our Lord Jesus Christ was not a failure in any way. It
was a victory. It's his last words. It is finished. From those words, we learned
this. He was there to accomplish something. And he accomplished
exactly what he set out to do. What was he there to accomplish?
To single-handedly accomplish the salvation of everyone the
Father gave him in divine election. And you know what? This is what
he said from the lips of a man who cannot lie. It is finished. He did what he said he was going
to do. And here's the fourth thing we
learn from the cross. We learn that there's hope for me and
you. God has a people. He chose a people. He gave them
to Christ. Christ went and he accomplished
salvation for those people. Those people must be saved. And there's nothing special about
these people. They are common and they are ordinary. They simply
have the love of God upon them. But if people have been past
tense saved, that means there's a chance I'm one of them. And
we can know right now whether I'm one of them or not. It's
very simple. 1 Timothy 1.15, and this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into this
world to save who? Sinners. Can it be that simple? It absolutely is that simple.
And folks, if you can identify with that word, I'm a sinner,
I've got nothing before God. My only hope is that he died
for me. My only hope is the dagger of God's justice went into him
from me and he removed my sins and they are gone. That's all
I've got. If that's you, he died for you. It is finished. It's over. That's the message
of the cross. You sinner, believe Christ. Believe on him and believe
him. Believe what he says. Now the second thing we learn
from this. What does it look like when the
Lord makes this message effectual? Now consider Eglin for a second.
It says Eglin was a very fat man, right? Well, how are we
born in this world? Swollen and bloated with pride
and capability in our own minds. We can come up with a good work.
We can believe God. We can do these things. Now let
me give you this scripture. Remember that dagger that Ehud
made, it's double edged. For the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. He comes to a man with this message,
this gospel message, and he makes it effectual to that bloated
man who's full of pride and self-righteousness, and he plunges that dagger into
him, and this is what it does. It's quick. It gives life. It's
powerful. This is the power of God unto
salvation, the preaching of the Gospel, the Lord making this
message effectual to a sinner. And it actually divides. It creates
a division. Because when this message is
given, a new man is birthed. The old man is still there. That
old sinful man is still there. But a holy man is birthed inside
of him. There's a war that goes on. And when that new man is
there, you know what the new man sees as soon as he gets there?
What was the last thing Eglin saw before he died? all the filth
that was inside of him. That new man, when he's given,
what's his confession? I'm a sinner. I've got no claims
on God. Lord, save me. That may be the
strangest passage of scripture I've ever read, but the gospel's
really plain of it, isn't it? Thanks.